


this and the world

by evanlinge



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 21:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6676348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanlinge/pseuds/evanlinge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In his youth, Jiraiya trained the deadliest ninjas in history. In his age, he trains one more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this and the world

 

 

 _In his youth,_ _Jiraiya trained the deadliest ninjas in history. In his age, he trains one more._

 

––––

 

Jiraiya did not want to take this boy as his apprentice, all bright eyes, even brighter smiles and wild cornflower blond hair. The waif is the very image of everything that he wants to forget, but he knows, he knows – he would suffocate in his own guilt if he refused, so Jiraiya agrees, silently hating Minato for dying and hating himself even more for thinking it.

 

The boy is brilliant, " _Naruto_ ," he scowls, "I have a name you know," –and Jiraiya _should_ know because he's the one who gave it to him.

 

He's brilliant in the way that is often mistaken for insanity. Minato was like that too, only he wasn't so damn obvious about it.

 

 

––––

 

_he's only obvious if you know what to look for, peel back the layers of orange cloth, and skin that never scars, and maybe open up his bones as well because nobody ever really looks hard enough to see what it is that he's made of_

 

––––

 

Jiraiya ignores the whisper in his mind, and the blond ghost child sitting next to him, and finishes the sake bottle instead.

 

He won't look hard enough either. If he does, he knows, he knows – he'll be looking at Minato instead of his godchild.

 

––––

 

It takes Naruto two weeks to learn the _Rasengan_ , a kage's unfinished jutsu, and then he takes it even further until it could tear his body apart.

"I have to be stronger," he says, but when he gives his reasons Jiraiya doesn't believe him.

 

––––

 

He knows, he knows – that Naruto is furious with him when he forces the boy to access the Kyuubi's tainted chakra until he loses his mind and will. Jiraiya has the scar over his sternum to prove it.

 

––––

 

They both wear the traditional white kimonos to honour the Spiral Festival in Wave, but of the two of them only Jiraiya knows that the original tradition was to celebrate the fall of Whirlpool, the village of Naruto's dead ancestors. He resolves never to take the boy to the forgotten ruin of a city.

 

When they arrive back at the hotel Naruto sheds his clothes as fast as he sheds his skin – _h_ _e_ _is unnervingly proficient at transformations –_

 

"I hate the colour white. It's the colour of death, you know," Naruto explains, and this isn't much of an explanation at all. "Don't you know, Sensei? They say it was the colour of the Yondaime's soul,"

 

There is something like hero worship and wistful bitterness in his expression and Jiraiya turns away.

 

He'll open the fine sake this evening.

 

––––

 

When the boy turns fifteen Jiraiya offers to take him to one of the more distinguished pleasure houses.

 

"Pervert," the boy hisses, a blush staining his cheeks, and he really shouldn't be this bashful about such things. Jiraiya has seen his female transformation enough times to know that.

So instead they go to a bar in Tanuza City and drink more cups of expensive sake than Jiraiya thinks his protégé can handle.

 

The next week Naruto is experimenting with the theories of _Hiraishin_ , and Jiraiya can't bring himself to be surprised when he appears in a flash of bright gold and breathless laughter.

"One day I'm going to walk with the gods," he doesn't say but Jiraiya hears it anyway.

 

They are the dead Yondaime Hokage's own words, and Jiraiya can only bury his face in his hands and laugh and laughan _dlaughandlaughheknowsheknows_ –

 

Maybe that damned martyr complex will be passed down through generations too – an endless series of bright hair and brighter eyes for Jiraiya to choke himself on.

 

Jiraiya resolves to drink until he stops looking at one and seeing the other.

 

 


End file.
